Even after all that, I thought it’d be a clever idea to go on and do a MSc. This time round its Bioinformatics. â€œWhy Bioinformatics?â€ I hear you screaming from the top of your lungs. Well, my final year project was an in silico analysis into a protein using homology based modelling techniques for both secondary and tertiary structure (Wiki if confused). This lead to me becoming rather interested in bioinformatics, hence my choice in Masters. After doing my BSc in Medical Genetics, Bioinformatics is a big change in direction for me and getting my head around things like Perl and R is taking some getting use to.

As to the future, Iâ€™m not all too sure, Iâ€™d like to do something like Genomics or Epigenetics for a PhD but knowing me Iâ€™ll probably change my mind a million times before settling on something. Lets see what this year brings first.

Wait a minuteâ€¦

As I probably should have mentioned at the beginning of the post, if you couldnâ€™t tell, Iâ€™ve revamped SouthanUK for the umpteenth time. This time round it shares some of the features from previous iterations but the focus this time is less on tweets, more on content. I came to the conclusion that sifting through millions of pages to find posts was not the best idea so now the tweets have been banished from the main index of pages and are now searchable if you so wish. The top 5 or so tweets are available to view at the top of the index page only. Follow me on twitter for latest news and ramblings.

Been an avid follower of NASA and their antics since the unfortunate accident in 2003 with Space Shuttle Columbia. One thing that has never ceased to amaze is the photos that NASA returns. These are some of the most mind blowing and awe inspiring photos you will ever see. No digital trickery or CG, just good old mother earth.

Its doing the rounds on the TV and the internets, its the ballsy grandma attacking a bunch of robbers in Northampton, UK.

Something tells me this is a bit fake. Seems too good to be true, a single elderly lady chasing off a horde of sledgehammer-equipped young men. However, if it is real, congrats to the gran for actually doing something! The other residents just standing around like nothing was happeningâ€¦ Good for her.

Happy 10th Birthday Wikipedia!

Today is 10 years [Believe it or not] since the first article on Wikipedia was created and in those 10 years over 3.5 million articles have been written in the English Wikipedia alone with around 17 million[17 657 955 to be exact – 14/01/11 20:41 GMT!] in all the language variants, of which there are more than 278.

I do remember the first time I went on it way back in 2002, I believe I was looking for something to help with my homework [As is every other person who checks in to Wikipedia], and to my surprise I found this wealth of information that seemed very relevant indeed. Wikipedia is a great starting point for looking up something but one must use caution on the site since it is of course freely editable by anyone in the world. However, it is a brilliant starting point and can provide many happy hours of flicking between entries.

So hereâ€™s to Wikipediaâ€™s eternal reign over our informational needs.

One of my favourite pastimes is to have a nice olâ€™ drive on a train simulator. My personal favourite, OpenBVE, has come on leaps and bounds since I last wrote about it.

Taking advantage of these new improvements is the Network West Midlands route from the people at Trainsimcentral.co.uk. A fictional 25 kV route set in the Midlands, it features a multitude of electric units and diesel units with long stretches of super quick 125 mph sections running into several termini, all highly detailed.

For your viewing pleasure I have included some screenshots of its latest update that show how the route has come on 😀

Old Signal

New Signal

New features include animated clocks, passing trains, moving traffic over bridges, a massive visual overhaul and support for new â€œrandomâ€ features in OpenBVE allowing for sections of the route to be changed randomly to show maintenance workers and weather.

Here’s an video of me playing a version of the route from 2009 in OpenBVE: